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Fix Missing or Corrupt Hal.dll

Boot to the Windows recovery console
get to the proper drive (usually is c:)
type attrib -H c:boot.ini enter
type attrib -R c:boot.ini enter
type attrib -S c:boot.ini enter
type del c:boot.ini enter (you are deleting the boot.ini this is normally the reason for the corrupt hal.dll)
type bootcfg /rebuild fixboot

After the fix runs reboot and everything should be fixed. When I first did this I ran into an issue where I got an error “can fixboot on a corrupt registry” I ran and chkdsk /r after that completed I ran step 7 again and everything worked fine.

I have also heard an alternative solution fix this issue in the recovery console do the following command

Expand D:I386HAL.DL_ c:WINDOWSSYSTEM32HAL.DLL

I have never tried this method so I cannot prove it works but if your issue persists it might be worth a try. If you get an “access denied” do the attrib command to the HAL.DLL file that might help you. Again I have not tried this method just giving suggestions.

Posted on June 29, 2010 by Administrator, Reply

WMI Troubleshooting

This is a great article on troubleshooting WMI or WMI Troubleshooting issues related to SCCM 2007.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2009/05/08/wmi-troubleshooting-tips.aspx

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Administrator, Reply

Silent Install Adobe CS3

Copy the entire Adobe CS3 software up to a share drive.

Run Setup.exe with –record=1 option run through the install. Copy the 2 files it creates to the same directory as the setup.exe. Rename them to install.xml and remove.xml.

Create your payload file copy and paste the code below into and notepad and named to “application.xml.override“. Remember to enter your Serial Number.

serialnumber
Suppress
Suppress
Suppress

Then dump that override file into the payloads folder in the folder that ends with _US_volume

Create your command line for the install
setup.exe –mode=silent –deploymentFile=”:install.xml”

CS3 should install silently with no issues. Exit code 0 means everything installed ok if you get an exit code 7 rerun threw these steps.

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Administrator, Reply

Vulnerability Assessments Whats Missed

A friend of mine passed this a long and since I have not had a security post in a while and this is a great article I thought it was worth posting. Talks about how certain devices on the network like printers, fax machines and security cameras exc are over looked in vulnerability testing. The article also hits on some other errors in vulnerability testing.

http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerability_management/security/perimeter/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=225700674

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Administrator, Reply

Windows DNS Aging and Scavenging

Had a big DNS problem today and this article really helped me out very detailed and easy to understand. I have worked with DHCP and DNS in the past never realized how many setting and options there really were to set. Was interesting you would ping a PC by name and would come back with the wrong IP. The problem ended up being a combination of short DHCP leases with a long aging and scavenging time set in DNS.

http://searchwindowsserver.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid68_gci1040355,00.html

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Administrator, Reply

Set Registry Permissions Threw Group Policy

Open Group Policy Management
Edit an existing policy or create a new policy.
Navigate to Computer Configuration ->Policies->Windows Settings -> Security Settings -> Registry.
Right click the Registry and click Add Key.
Choose the Registry key you want to change.
Configure the appropriate permissions.
Choose the proper setting from the Add Object dialog box.
Link or enforce the policy accordingly.

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Administrator, Reply

Office 2010 Activation on Captured Image

With the new Microsoft KMS service built into office 2010 you must run the following executable before you can capture your image.

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OfficeSoftwareProtectionPlatform\OSPPREARM.EXE

The reason being is sysprep does not clear out the KMS identifier in Office like it does in Windows. So every machine will have the same identifier making it impossible for your KMS server to activate your Office 2010 clients. Run this executable before capturing your image and you should be fine.

Posted on June 21, 2010 by Administrator, Reply

Computer Associations Problem SCCM 2007

I recently worded on an issue where you would import computers into an imaging collection and it would take hours before they would kick off to image. I found a Microsoft Hotfix to fix this issue. Microsoft hotfix KB980270 took care of this issue for me I applied the patch rebooted the server and everything we imported starting imaging. This issue focus on System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 2 AKA SCCM 2007 SP2 but I can tell you from experience SP1 also had the same issue and there was a separate hotfix to fix that issue.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=980270

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Administrator, Reply

Start System Restore From Command Line

using the task manager click file -> then new task
type cmd this will open a command prompt
then navigate to C:\system32\restore
then type rstrui.exe this should launch the system restore wizard
Now just follow the system restore wizard

For More Information On Microsoft System Restore

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Administrator, Reply

Disable Windows Safe Mode

To Disable Safe mode first

Go to Start> Run
Type regedit and click OK
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlSafeBoot
Expand SafeBoot by clicking the + sign and you should see 2 keys with the name Minimal and Network.
Before you can rename the keys you must give yourself permissions to the keys. Remove inherited right and apply rights to child objects. You many also want to take ownership of the key.
Rename both of the keys to something else, example, Minimal to MinimalX and Network to NetworkX.?